1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit member-holding clamp for holding a plurality of circuit members (such as wires) in a parallel, juxtaposed manner, and for being fixedly secured to a wall when installing these circuit members. This invention also relates to a method of producing this circuit member-holding clamp.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 10-157612, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 7 shows the related wire holding clamp (see Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-231538) for holding a plurality of wires in a juxtaposed manner and for being fixedly secured to a wall.
This wire holding clamp A is molded of a synthetic resin, and a lid 3 is connected to one end of a base plate 1 through a flexible hinge 2. When the lid 3 is closed, a lock hole 5, formed in a lock member 4 formed at one end of the lid 3, is engaged with a lock pawl 6 formed on the other end of the base plate 1.
A plurality of support legs 7 are formed upright on an inner surface of the base plate 1 in a juxtaposed manner, and roof-like wire introducing portions 8 are formed on distal ends of the support legs 7, respectively.
The lid 3 is first opened, and then a wire W is pressed against the adjacent wire introducing portions 8, and as a result the wire introducing portions 8, thus pressed by the wire W, are elastically deformed to allow the passage of the wire W, so that the wire W is inserted between the support legs 7 (see FIG. 8).
The gap between the adjacent wire introducing portions 8 is smaller than the diameter of the wire W, and therefore even if a force, tending to disengage the wire from the clamp, acts on the wire, the wire will not be disengaged from the clamp, and is kept retained between the support legs 7.
After all the wires are inserted, the lid 3 is closed, so that the lock member 4 is engaged with the lock pawl 6. Then, a clip 9 (see FIG. 8), formed on an outer surface of the base plate 1, is pressed against a hole portion formed in a mounting portion of a wall, so that a distal end portion of the clip 9 is elastically compressed, and is passed through this hole. This distal end portion, when passed through the hole, is elastically restored, and therefore the wire holding clamp A is fixedly secured to the wall.
The wire holding clamp A need to have rigidity enough to retain the wires, and the clip 9, formed integrally with this clamp, also need to have sufficient rigidity to be fixedly secured to the wall so as to support the wire holding clamp A on the wall.
However, the wall, on which the wires W are to be installed or mounted, does not always have a flat surface. When the wire holding clamp A is to be mounted on a curved wall B as shown in FIG. 9, this mounting operation can not be easily carried out, and besides there are encountered problems that the wire holding clamp A lifts off the wall B, so that a gap or space is formed between the clamp A and the wall B, that a foreign matter is liable to be caught by the wire holding clamp A projecting from the wall B, and that the installation of the wires W is difficult if the installation space is narrow.